Question

I just started to delve into backbone.js and I am not sure what is the best way to use routers.

App.Events = _.extend({}, Backbone.Events);

App.HouseDetailRouter = Backbone.Router.extend({
    routes: {
        '': 'main',
        'details/:id': 'details',
    },
    initialize: function() {

    },
    main: function() {
        App.Events.trigger('show_main_view');  
    },
    details: function(id) {
        model = App.houseCollection.get(id);
        App.Events.trigger('show_house', model);
    },
});

Should routers fire events like above, and then have views listen to these events?

Answer 1

This is actually not a bad way to use a router as it relegates the router to simply handling routes as opposed to business logic. What you might consider when using a router this way is to have a controller object listen to the router events then update the app’s models. When the models change state the views would update.